Sylvain Lamirande combines intense, searching performances with intricate electronic textures and noises to create transparent layers of synthetic atmosphere and convincing digital structures in his album Rude Awakening. Lamirande uses an intriguing mixture of analog and digital synthesizers and MIDI and acoustic wind instruments, creating a well-integrated texture that sounds simultaneously digital and human. Beyond the innovative synthesized sounds that would be relished by any heads-down programmer are organic, animated performances that warm the music with spontaneity and improvisation, blurring the lines between man and machine. Twitching digital fragments pulsate and crawl across the stereo field like characters pacing back and forth on a stage, gradually dissolving into a slow build-up of sporadic buzzing, scraping and synthetic filtered washes, and finally climaxing in disintegrating outbursts. (Rude Awakening) A slow, noisey glissando rises and falls with glitchy fragments falling off it's trunk, these tattered, scratching children eventually becoming larger figures that swallow their mother. They coo and sing sickly before and after their collision with a mad harpsichorist. (Presences) The sounds are 3-dimensional; they have depth and space, moving across the stereo field as well as from back to front. They evoke a wide array of emotion, from solitude to disturbance to angst to longing. But the most striking aspect of Rude Awakening is it's sense of searching, the way the performances and sounds wander and seek intricate paths to incomprehensible places. The sounds bend and ramble, but find their ways to definitive moments that provide structure and purpose. The beauty here is in following these sonic entities as their aspirations and directions are gradually realized in key events.

A unique hybrid of electronic experimental, avant garde, and modern classical, Samarkande’s Rude Awakening begins in fits and starts with the quirky “Épisodes.” Starting with churning restlessness, it shifts into a veritable barrage of sounds partway in. This is intense stuff, not for the faint hearted. Sylvain Lamirande explores more adventurous territory on his own than he did with collaborator Eric Fillion on the previous Samarkande release, 4 Cadavres Exquis. “Analgésique Analogique” is like synthesized birds flittering and chirping about. But trying to pin down exact sounds or even passable descriptions is a challenge. This is about experimenting with sound in many forms, from synthesizers and samplers to saxophone, clarinet, and tape treatments. The title track sounds like you might expect, intentionally discordant, a rude awakening indeed. The last two tracks clock in at just under and over 20 minutes apiece. “Présences” goes through various movements, some dark and swirling, some bright and twittering, some nearly silent. In the thirteenth minute, it becomes frantic, like cats going after each other. By far the darkest turn is the finisher, “Les Dépossédés,” which at times reminds me of Klaus Schulze’s brilliant “Sebastian In Traum” from Audentity. Easily my favorite of the selections here, it remains to be seen whether I will be in the mood to play this album through more than once. I think there is a distinct message and a purpose in the music here, but one that only a select few will appreciate.

This album was released under the project name "Samarkande" but in fact it's a solo work of Sylvain Lamirande, who I think has academic background, judging from the sounds and approach found on this release. While this may not be correct, I'm afraid I'll have to draw the line between this work and "4 Cadavres Exquis" which was done in collaboration with Eric Fillion. And when I listen to the two albums, it's easy to hear who's responsible for the experimental / sound sculpture type stuff and who brings in elements of progressive electronic (EM) to "4 Cadavres". Most of "Rude Awakening" is more or less in academic electronic vein and out of scope of EEM. Don't get me wrong, this is in no way a bad album. I have heard a lot of experimental / academic stuff, so I had no problems with this release either. But for someone who is used to a more directly melodic / prog synth approach this may be a bit of a pain to get into. Just a word of warning here. Ok, on to the music. "Episodes" mainly consists of random sounds and noises, more like short snatches of various textures and a bit of background atmospheres. Sometimes it becomes really intense, at other times it's rather sparse. And that's pretty much all about it. "Analgesique Analogique" is more synthetic sounding but the approach is no different to the one deployed in the previous track. Here we have lots of beeps and some darker, bass-laden sounds that just seem to fight with some sort of squeaking noises. Nice resonating synth textures at around the 3:20 mark. The title track is similar to what has come before, but here we are confronted, in spite of the tracks' chaotic nature, with a more purposeful approach, that creates some sort of dark and unsettling atmosphere. This almost sounds like a Dark Ambient track. "Presences" continues this albums' exploration of abstract and at times collaged sound. On this track Eric Fillion is credited with playing the mellotron and Indian pump organ, but the tron use is limited to short snatches of pitch-bended flute and choir near the end. I guess there's not much organ either, just some subtle background playing, although I'm not certain of that because I'm not sure I can recognize the sound of Indian pump organ. On the other hand, the harpsichord, played by Karoline Leblanc, is working overtime here, dominating the second part of the track with its virtually aimless abstract patterns. "Les Depossedes" ends the album in a fittingly experimental manner. The first part sounds pretty dark and quite impressive (I liked it - very Dark Ambient-like), while the second part is dominated by distorted samples and other strange and harsh sounds. Overall, I enjoyed this album, but I can only recommend it to the experimentally-inclined.